Southland marching teams right on top

Becoming three-peat and back-to-back winners is a feat not taken for granted by two victorious Southland marching teams.

The Hokonui Southland Under-18 team reclaimed their title as the champion team for the third time in a row and were the first marching team to earn that accolade at the South Island Marching Championships held in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) last week.

 

The club's under-13 team claimed a back-to-back victory for the same title and won awards for their technical and display skills, Hokonui Under-13 co-coach Levana Philip said.

 

"Our team saying was, `dream, believe, achieve.'

 

"All the hours of training and everything that you put into the team and just seeing their faces and their joy and happiness.

 

"Some of them just couldn't stop crying.

 

"It was so overwhelming, but we were just so happy and proud and that's what it was all about," Philip said.

 

The under-18 co-coach Renee Morgan  shared her sentiments and claimed her team's "BTB, better than before and back to back", mantra was the philosophy that her girls trained with, which led them to their triple victories.

 

"So every time they perform, they mean to be better than the [previous] time they performed.

 

"We always put ourselves at the bottom, and it's up to the girls to build themselves back up to the top, and that's exactly what they did on the weekend.

 

"There's no expectations, no ego, they have to fight for it," Morgan said.

 

Both Hokonui teams included three new members who had never trained or marched before with their respective cliques.

 

"We had three newbies to Hokonui this year, but then we had one of our girls who wasn't in some drills last year, who had to also step up and she was incredible," Morgan said.

 

Philip was equally impressed with her under-13 novice trio, and they had proved they "were ready for it".

 

Both teams were looking forward to a well-deserved break but were already setting their sights on next year's New Zealand Marching Championships.

 

The South Island Marching Championships were hosted by Marching Canterbury at Wolfbrook Arena.

 

The event began with a local Canterbury competition, followed by the South Island Marching Championships and  finished with the awards presentation.